Wii U setback hits Nintento profit

Nintendo says its profit for the first nine months of the fiscal year fell 30% because of languishing sales of its Wii U home consoles and game software.

The Japanese maker of Super Mario video games reported a 10.2bn yen (€72m) profit from April to December, down from 14.55bn yen (€103m) a year earlier. It did not break down quarterly numbers.

The Kyoto-based company this month forecast a loss of 25bn yen (€177m) for the fiscal year through to March. It had earlier forecast a profit of 55bn yen (€391 million).

It also cut its annual forecast of Wii U sales from 9 million units to just 2.8 million, fewer than a third of its earlier estimate.

The popularity of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets has been drawing consumers away from consoles devoted to games, and Nintendo has resisted changing its business to incorporate such devices.

Tomoaki Kawasaki, senior analyst at IwaiCosmo Securities, said: “It would be a positive surprise if Nintendo comes out with an online game strategy for smartphones, although the market doesn’t expect that move.”

Consumers will still buy Nintendo games if they are wowed by them, but that hasn’t been happening, he said.

The company said it sold 2.4 million units in April through to December, a slower pace than 3 million units in the same period of 2012.

“In the fourth quarter, we expect sales to decrease significantly due to seasonal factors as the year-end sales season concludes,” Nintendo said in a statement.

Nintendo also cut the sales forecast for its hand-held 3DS video game devices to 13.5 million units from 18 million units for the fiscal year.

The company is expecting software sales to struggle as well.